


Febuwhump Day 6 - Fire

by konan_konan



Series: Febuwhump 2020 [6]
Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Burns, Gen, Hurt Aloy (Horizon: Zero Dawn), Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, how is that not a tag guys, not sure what other tags to add so ill just leave it here lol, we need to up the whump in this fandom istg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:42:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26094337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/konan_konan/pseuds/konan_konan
Summary: Aloy is an incredible huntress.But she's also a human.Humans make mistakes.And mistakes? Those can get you killed.
Relationships: Aloy & Aratak (Horizon: Zero Dawn), Aloy & Rost (Horizon: Zero Dawn)
Series: Febuwhump 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1619686
Kudos: 30





	Febuwhump Day 6 - Fire

**Author's Note:**

> hehe y'all were hoping for more heroaca but im an aloy stan first and a human second

She should have been more careful.

(She wants to blame it on Talanah, whose bad habits must be rubbing off on her. She also knows that she's always been like this.)

Usually she's unstoppable, a force of nature, but today, she's made more mistakes than she can count. Little mistakes, all of them, but mistakes all the same.

And these mistakes quickly snowballed down a very steep hill, leaving her all alone in Scorcher valley.

...with no chillwater, and, much worse, no fire kiln root.

"At least I have my Thresh armor," she mutters, nocking a third arrow on her bow. The Scorcher tackles her before she can pull back the string.

Its metal paw swings towards her, blazing with fire, a mechanical snarl sounding from deep within its mechanisms.

She falls in the snow with a yelp, and stands seconds later with gritted teeth and an arm held instinctively over her stomach.

The cold metal of her vambraces almost stings against her exposed skin.

(Pulling away aches, but she has a Scorcher to kill, and a little scratch won't stop her.)

It takes another ten minutes to land a hit on the thing, but when she does, it goes down hard.

"Good thing too," Aloy pants to herself, "I'm almost out of arrows."

She collapses into the snow, leaning against the wreckage of her kill. It's still warm, so she curls into it, desperate to escape the frigidity of the Cut, if only for a moment.

It's when she pulls her arm against her stomach that she realizes something is wrong. Her armor scrapes against the exposed skin and the wind is knocked out of her, leaving her doubled over and gasping for breath on the snow.

She sits up, leaning down to see the damage.

(Aloy's been burned before. When she was eleven, she and Rost went to hunt some Grazers. 

"Don't shoot at the blaze canisters with fire arrows," Rost told her. "Not unless you're far away. The blaze will explode, and could kill you."

She didn't listen, of course. She  _ never  _ listened, at least not to words alone. Every lesson had to be learned the hard way. 

It was only a small burn on her arm, but it was enough for Rost to ground her for a week. He stayed home with her and helped her with her bandages and medicine, and told her Nora folktales.

She would pretend not to listen at first, but they were such interesting stories, and Rost had a good voice for it.

So, yeah. Aloy had been burned before. And not just that once. That was the first of many burns, and not the first of many scars.

But no little burn could prepare her for this.)

Her stomach is red and raw, already swelling with pus and blood. The edges of the wound are darkened, brown and spotty where they had been clear before. Light clear liquid is present all over the burn site, giving her skin an unnatural glisten in the sunlight.

She squeezes her eyes shut, taking deep labored breaths. Each slight movement of her torso sends ripples of agony over her stomach.

Still, she gets up. She grabs a stick, long and thick and frozen solid, and leans on it as she walks.

"Not far from Song's Edge," she grits out. She clenches her free fist and grinds her teeth. "Not far."

She trips on a rock and loses her balance. She falls to the ground, gasping as the breath is knocked out of her again.

Distantly, she hears footsteps. She takes deep breaths and pushes herself up.

(If there's wanderers on the road, they'll need help. She's seen Daemonic machines not far from here, they might not survive an encounter.)

"Aloy!"

But it's Aratak's voice that greets her, not a stranger's. She feels a gloved hand grab onto her shoulder, and she forces her eyes open.

"By the blue light, what happened to you?"

"S-scorcher," she chokes out. His gaze darkens. "It's gone, though. Took… took care of it."

"Try taking care of yourself, huntress," he mutters. Before she can respond he's hooked an arm under her legs and pulled her up to his chest in bridal position.

(Her stomach is in agony, but the rest of her is reveling in the warmth of another person.)

"Rest, girl," he says.

"I was your Chieftain, you know," she mumbles. "If anything, I should be g-giving the orders."

"Maybe so. Rest anyway."

His tone leaves no room for argument, and she feels the sleep creeping up on her anyway. "Fine."

He begins to walk, probably towards Song's Edge. And as she drifts off to gentle sleep, she hears… 

"And next time, be careful about playing with fire."

**Author's Note:**

> yeah i was joking about the "aloy stan first human second" thing but only a little.
> 
> anyway one more work will be posted today, it won't be hzd but lmk if you want more Aloy whump :)


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